REVIEW: Avengers #1

After all of discussion of Thunderbolts earlier this week, PTB and I thought it might be fun to discuss all of Marvel’s Heroic Age launches beginning with the centerpiece book, Avengers #1. Spoilers ahead.

PTB: I enjoyed Avengers #1, primarily because of the inclusion of Kang the Conqueror. I don’t know what it is about that character, but I’m a fan.

KevinMLD: i don’t really know anything about Kang except that he’s a guy that you have some like nostalgic appreciation of… Oh and that he’s a time traveler of some sort.

PTB: He’s a time warrior!

I don’t know how I feel about the future children of the Avengers being central to the storyline, but Brian Bendis has put together some Avengers stories over the last few years that have held my attention like few before.

The big reveal at the end is interesting. The Maestro is a fantastic character and pairing him with Kang should be great fun. Who is the woman though?

KevinMLD: If I’m not mistaken, most of these characters came from a Marvel Direct to Video animated movie called Next Avengers or something. I believe a bearded Hulk even appeared in it. So I’m not 100 percent sure he’s the Maestro.

PTB: I remember seeing that advertised, but I will now move it up on the Netflix queue. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I’ll reserve judgement until I see more.

KevinMLD: One thing I think really works about this issue is that it’s basically the last five minutes of Back to the Future and it’s setting up Back to the Future 2. I’ll be so disappointed if Spider-man doesn’t buy and bring back a sports almanac. It would be such a missed opportunity.

PTB: That would be perfect.

John Romita Jr.’s artwork here is not his best. It looks OK, but it’s not what’s going to keep me coming back (Kang is!). It’s kind of amazing how hot and cold I run with Romita’s work. I remember not liking his Uncanny X-Men years ago, but I found his run on Amazing Spider-Man to be fantastic. It might be something about working on a team book rather than a single character, but he only had a few really good pages here.

KevinMLD: I’m definitely not a fan of the art. In the last few weeks I’ve read a couple Romita books. His work was pretty terrible in this book and the Free Comic Book Day Iron Man-Thor special. Some of it looks like it was drawn by a high school student.

Having said that, I just read the Eternals series he did with Neil Gaiman and that book looks amazing. It’s just beautiful. I wonder if his art suffered in the Avengers stuff due to deadlines.

PTB: One of the things that really stuck out to me was the page where Kang is holding up his egg of annihilation and there’s an ad on the opposite page with the Black Cat holding a very similar item. Made me laugh a little about the prospects of a Kang/Black Cat team up.

KevinMLD: I must have missed that ad in the copy I read.

PTB: I’m interested enough to come back for issue 2, but I’m afraid I can’t make many predictions beyond that.

KevinMLD: I like the idea of Steve Rogers as the new Nick Fury… As long as he doesn’t suddenly know how to fly spaceships and lead missions to Mars.